After World War II, Ireland's economy was in decline, and the whole country fell into depression and confusion.
Many young people wander around with nothing to do all day long, empty, allowing their fate to be carried by the times, drifting with the tide of time.
The film "Brooklyn", which has been nominated for three Academy Awards, tells the story of this special period:
Alice, an Irish girl in the film, is forced by life and has to go to a foreign country alone.
She resolutely and firmly grasped the olive branch thrown by fate 3 times, and lived her own wonderful life.
In fact, no matter who you are, you have been more or less favored by fate.
It's just that some people can seize the opportunity and change their fate, while others turn a blind eye to these opportunities.
When you finish watching Brooklyn, you'll understand:
Fate has never been "predetermined", as long as you are not willing to be mediocre and have the courage to change, you can live your own life.
Opportunities, you have to fight for yourself
Alice was born in a small isolated town in Ireland, and although she went to school, she never had a job opportunity, so she had to rely on her sister's salary to survive, just like her mother.
Alice's older sister, Rose, is beautiful, passionate, and charismatic, an accountant for a company in town, and the flower of a golf club.
Compared to her sister, Alice is ordinary, shy, and lifeless, and she is simply a little transparent in town.
In order not to rely entirely on her sister and to help reduce the burden on the family, Alice took the initiative to find her boss Kelly and wanted a part-time job.
But even if she got a job, her life was still humble and helpless, and nothing improved:
When she went to work, the boss was snarky and treated her like a flower child
In her spare time, she often attends town balls, but she never gets anyone's attention.
When you have nothing, no one will take care of you;
But it is this nothingness that is the reason for your struggle.
Once, when a friend of my sister Rose came to visit the house, he was very surprised to hear what happened to Alice.
He told Alice that there are a lot of jobs in the U.S. that pay well.
Especially in a city called Brooklyn, as long as you work hard to be honest and educated, you can get paid for a white-collar job.
If you think about it, this would be a great opportunity, especially since Alice is still so young. ”
Rose's friend left this sentence before leaving.
That night, Alice had insomnia, and she lay in bed thinking about what Rose's friend said before leaving.
Brooklyn, I haven't even heard the name. ”
Will I be able to adapt when I get there?Am I up to the job there?For more than twenty years, I have never left town.
Thinking of this, Alice sat up again and thought back to her current situation in the town:
Without a fixed job, no definite future, or even an independent life, she can't imagine what the future holds.
Am I destined to be like this in this life?
Can I just wait for fate to arrange at will?
Couldn't I do anything myself?
After several painful struggles, Alice finally realizes that this is a unique opportunity that she must grasp!
She had to have a real job and income, she had to be a complete and independent person, so she had to get out of town.
I once heard a saying, "The most difficult thing in life is choice." ”
In the face of the unknown, fear is human nature.
Is it to huddle in a familiar town and continue to struggle, waiting for the olive branch of fate to smash into him?
Or do you step into an unfamiliar city and start over and take your destiny into your own hands?
Alice doesn't know what the future holds, but she knows that she doesn't want to be stuck in her current situation all the time, and she needs to be brave enough to make a choice!
Fate, you have to change it yourself
Leo Tolstoy once said, "All the changes in man, all the charms, all the beauty, are made of light and shadow." ”
Alice, with uncertainty about the future, paradoxically but resolutely boarded the ship to Brooklyn.
Introduced by Rose's friends, she became a teller in a department store.
The job at the mall was simple, Alice learned it as soon as she learned it, and soon, she was just as handy as the old employees.
But Alice didn't just want to be a teller when she came to Brooklyn.
On Alice's first day at work, she noticed a white-collar worker sitting in an office in a department store, which was her dream job.
Alice approached Rose's friend and told him that she wanted to learn bookkeeping and accounting, and that she had already taken the basics, and that she hoped to get a chance to continue Xi her studies in Brooklyn.
Mao Dun once said:
Fate is nothing but the boring ** of the loser, but the mockery of the cowardly.Alice went from an obscure small-town girl to a sophisticated teller in a Brooklyn mall.Our future can only be determined by our own will and our own efforts.
Although her identity has changed dramatically, she understands that she must not stop there, and must truly have a skill so that she can have more choices.
With the help of Rose's friends, Alice finally got her wish and entered Brooklyn College to study Xi.
The school's schedule is tight, with 3 hours of lessons every evening with only a 10-minute break in between.
Alice sometimes doesn't have time to eat dinner, so she can only swallow the bread with plain water during her break
Sometimes it rained heavily outside after class, and Alice would hold her bag above her head and run through the rain
Even in bad weather after snow and icy roads, Alice never missed a lesson.
With a busy job, fulfilling Xi, an empathetic supervisor and a knowledgeable evening teacher, Alice began to gradually integrate into American life.
She is no longer the shy and shy Alice who is useless, she has gradually become cheerful and confident, firm and calm.
She would go to church at Christmas to hand out meals to the homeless, confidently trade with the most difficult customers at the counter, and ask questions of her teachers in class.
She is no longer an ignorant little girl, she has started to wear makeup, become fashionable, and even much more beautiful.
She wore a newly bought dress from the department store to the prom and became the center of attention.
What used to be a prom was small and transparent, but now it has become the protagonist of the prom.
In the movie "Nezha's Demon Boy Descends to the World", Taiyi Zhenren saw Nezha's tenacity and tenacity, and sighed:
If you ask me, I don't know if people can change their fate, but I know that if you don't accept your fate, it is Nezha's fate. ”
Man's destiny has always been in his own hands.
Alice left her hometown and finally got a job of her own in Brooklyn.
But she was not willing to be mediocre and firmly enrolled in night school, because she knew that she did not want to be trapped in a small counter for the rest of her life.
Alice is using her actions to change her fate little by little.
And her future is becoming clearer and clearer in this change.
Happiness, you have to write it yourself
I once heard a saying: "Happiness is never given by others, but is built up in one's own life bit by bit." ”
One ordinary afternoon, Alice is called into the office, and Rose's friend tells her with a solemn look on her face that Rose is dead.
Alice was shocked, and she quickly arranged work, Xi, and prepared to go back to the town to spend some time with her elderly mother.
Unexpectedly, when the former ugly duckling Alice returned to the town, she became the focus of everyone.
The whole town is asking about you," the mother told Alice proudly, "and even Kelly has asked about you." And your friends, they all want you to visit them. ”
Alice noticed that even when she walked down the street, other women would stare at her dress, stockings, and shoes, or look at her tanned complexion.
Every time she went out on the street with her mother, those who had never looked at her in the right way complimented her on her beautiful clothes and mature hairstyle.
The best boy in town also became Alice's loyal suitor.
Even the job she once dreamed of was thrown an olive branch to her.
The boss of the company made an appointment with Alice in person and said that the company welcomed her very much and hoped that she could work in the company.
All of this made Alice feel as unreal as a dream.
Later, her best friend tells Alice that she is different now.
Now she is mature, steady, confident, and has an extraordinary temperament, and her whole person is radiant.
Familiar hometown, elderly mother, attractive job, excellent suitor ......
All of them are desperately trying to hold Alice: stay, don't go.
Stay in town and everything you originally wanted will come true.
As the day of return drew nearer, Alice struggled and wandered in agony again and again, and when she saw the letters from Brooklyn in the drawer, she woke up again.
No, I can't stay here!
I was the focus of the town because I went where they hadn't been and did things they didn't dare to do.
If I come back, after a long time, I will become my original self again, and history will repeat itself again.
Thinking of this, Alice resolutely picked up the suitcase.
She's back in Brooklyn. ”
Alice's mother told everyone.
Sitting on the train, Alice almost laughed at the thought of this, she knew how much it meant to her.
At this time, Alice is no longer the little girl who had nothing two years ago, she has a job, a capability, a lover, and a dream.
All of this was won by her initiative to fate.
Cicero said: "It is impossible not to be happy when you are all on your own, who has everything on your own." ”
After this homecoming, Alice knows that work, love, and respect can only be earned by herself.
Only by going out bravely, constantly challenging and changing, can we reap true happiness.
Some people say: fate is determined by heaven, not by people.
In the movie, Nezha finally does not believe in evil, and shouts out the earth-shattering determination of "my life is up to me, not to the sky".
Alice is equally convinced that her destiny should be in her own hands.
She didn't want to rely on her sister's help, so she resolutely decided to go to another country;
She was unwilling to stand behind the counter forever and firmly chose to apply for night school;
She didn't want to stay in the old circle of comfort, so she decisively chose to set off again.
Fate is a rope, always ** life, fate is a trajectory, is the trace of people's progress.
But whether to accept your fate or change your life is all in yourself.
Just like Alice, in this life, only by seizing the opportunity can we change our fate.